Inspire me with your family holiday experiences!

[Misty9]

We are a family of four including two DC, currently aged 2.5 and 5. We aren't mad keen on beach/hotel holidays and dh hates being too hot (above 30 degrees), so we struggle when it comes to destinations for family holidays. Currently in the Peak District for a few days and are loving the glorious surroundings and ds seems to love climbing peaks/rocks! But I still hanker after an overseas holiday.

So...where have you had a great family holiday that wasn't all about beach/pool/hotel? Inspire me please!

When ours were that sort of age...... Dorset, S.Wales, Norfolk, Peak District, Yorkshire Coast, North Wales.

When they got a few years older, our first 'abroad' holiday was Normandy - loads to see and do there, and temperatures only slightly warmer than the South Coast of England.

We got the ferry to northern Spain and stayed in a casa this summer.

We got the cable car into the Picos de Europa, there's lots of mountain walking all around there. Beautiful towns, great food, stunning coastline, lots of culture. We went in some of the caves with prehistoric paintings, and the children really enjoyed the museum of prehistory and archeology in Santander.

Temperatures in the high 20s in August.

I've just been to the south of Spain in mid October. It was still 27 degrees. We did activities like dolphin safaris, cable car up the rock of Gibraltar, visiting zoos, long beach walk fronts early morning.

Fruitcider that looks very nice where did you stay

Center parks in Holland. Far far cheaper than the ones here - lots of activities included too. Fantastic.

The holiday parks in Germany and Holland are lovely.
We went on a bit of a road trip around holland, Germany and Denmark (Legoland) when DD1 was about 6.
Look at Canvas holidays or Eurocamp. There are loads in France too.

The best holidays we had when boys were younger were at www.bestfrenchgites.co.uk.

We went to Barcelona and Melbourne and both are great with young children. We did Barcelona with DC1 about 2yo. She really loved the parc gruell. We did Melbourne with 2 of them 4 and 1. They loved the zoo, the play parks, the tram and we stayed at a serviced apartment in the centre. We also went to Hong Kong a few times with Disney, Ocean Park and they loved the street food. And DC1 loves the temples and their golden god/goddess statues. (I remembered Barcelona not as fun but looking back I think it's my expectation being not right).

We have also done AI beach holiday once too. The kids don't prefer beach over city breaks. At that age, as long as there are days to the local zoo or theme park, open spaces to run in, and even cultural attractions where they can run around, they are happy. Pick something you used to love to do, and look up some local attractions for kids.

We had the most amazing holiday at the Kinder Hotel in Haus, Austria.

Perfect for kids, mountains, hiking, childcare, cycling, heaven!

Would highly recommend!

Sorry I should add it's a ski village in the winter but we went in the summer and it was stunning.

You can fly into Saltzberg, have a couple of nights there, then take a short but stunning train journey to Schladming. Haus is ten mins away.

We did the following when my dc were young - city breaks to Athens (in November) Stockholm, Oslo, Prague.
Longer holidays - parks in the Netherlands or Germany.
www.roompot.com/ - used this company.
As the Dutch kids go back earlier than UK in the summer there were some good deals from mid August onwards.